Challenge

Baxter BioPharma Solutions provides contract pharmaceutical manufacturing and packaging to drug makers worldwide. Conducting a tour at one of the two campuses, in Bloomington, Indiana and Halle, Germany, is a primary means of engaging with customers and new prospects, in order to show off the facilities and manufacturing processes. In-person tours, however, have become more and more challenging, with many areas classified, sterile, or otherwise inaccessible to visitors. There are other limitations to consider as well, including scheduling logistics, and visitors’ time restrictions and travel budgets.

Thanks to the Hamilton team, the challenges have been significantly reduced with the creation of sophisticated digital tours. The digital tours now provide many more opportunities for Baxter to share both campuses with prospective and current clients.

Approach

The Hamilton EXTEND® Digital Facility Tours feature 360° panoramic photography, videos, and facility maps displaying the many capabilities offered in the two plants. The Hamilton team consulted every step of the way, including arranging and organizing the photography and video production based on Baxter’s key areas of focus. Hamilton’s inhouse production team visited the site in advance, then, when Baxter’s production schedule allowed, we were able to quickly come in and shoot the planned content.

Similar to a live tour, there are many featured vantage points within the facility that offer a first-hand view of Baxter’s production, packaging, warehousing, distribution, quality assurance and storage capabilities. Pop-up content windows offer detailed information, diagrams, images, and video clips.

To maintain control of who is accessing the tours and what they are seeing, the immersive experience is not available to the general public. Rather, the tours are privately arranged and hosted by a trained tour guide from Baxter. Through the secure user interface, tour guides connect with clients remotely and customize the tours based on customers’ specific interests and needs. Local languages can be accommodated with Baxter tour guides from around the world.

Tour guides are provided training on how to navigate the digital tours, which is easy: each area is mapped, with featured areas of interest highlighted and labeled.

Results

With a Baxter tour guide, the facility and all of its capabilities can be easily accessed in the digital tour. With a customized tour, a prospect or customer is allowed to “step inside” and see the solutions Baxter has to offer, from anywhere in the world.

“I can use this platform to customize a client's tour simply based on specific filling lines, formulation suites and packaging lines that we have identified for their product. For example, if it's a high-speed syringe process that is in a specific building and a specific line, I can really drill down and show them exactly what equipment their product will be transferred on and then filled commercially.”
—Senior Project Manager, Baxter BioPharma Solutions

“Having high quality videos and images to show individuals how our facilities is operating when it's up full time gives us flexibility to give tours even during planned downtime or maintenance activities, or if we’re not running a particular production batch in a certain line.”
—Director of Program Management, Baxter BioPharma Solutions